CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
Indian Independence Day
- Independence Day is celebrated annually on 15 August as a national holiday in India commemorating the nation’s independence from the United Kingdom on 15 August 1947.
- On the occasion of India’s 74th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised those who are working relentlessly to defeat the novel coronavirus.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Govt forms 5 members panel to probe into Kozhikode plane crash
- Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has ordered probe into the Air India Express aircraft crash at Kozhikode airport.
- The Investigation of the aircraft crash will be done by a five member team headed by Captain S S Chahar.
- The team will investigate and determine the probable causes and contributory factors leading to the accident.
- It will also make recommendations to avoid such recurrences in the future. Investigator in-charge Captain S S Chahar will submit his report within 5 months.
- An Air India Express flight from Dubai with over 190 people, skidded off the tabletop runway during landing at the Kozhikode airport in heavy rains, killing 18 people on 7th of this month.
National Health Authority board gives nod to integrate central health schemes with Ayushman Bharat
- The governing board of National Health Authority (NHA) approved a proposal to integrate existing health schemes of Central Ministries and public sector undertakings with Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
- The move is expected to benefit government employees, including contractual employees, Central Armed Police Force personnel and other beneficiary groups such as building and construction workers, manual scavengers, and road accident victims, a statement stated.
- When implemented, the proposal will help integrate existing health schemes run by Central ministries and departments with Ayushman Bharat.
- The meeting chaired by Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan, gave in-principle approval for implementation of any healthcare scheme for employees (including Government employees) and other beneficiaries extended by central ministries, departments and other Central government bodies, based on their request, to be implemented on a common Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY platform. This is expected to seamlessly integrate all stakeholders in the ecosystem leading to enhancement of the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the extension of health services, it stated.
- The governing board also gave a go-ahead to conduct insurance pilots for covering missing middle/non-poor population (comprising varied sections of non-poor population such as informal sector workers, self-employed, professionals, employees in MSMEs etc) spread across occupations, geography and income strata, utilising the PM-JAY framework.
About National Health Authority:
- The National Health Authority or the NHA is the apex body responsible for implementing India’s flagship public health insurance/assurance scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).
- NHA has been set-up to implement the PM-JAY at the national level. In the States, SHAs or State Health Agencies in the form of a society/trust have been set up with full operational autonomy over the implementation of this scheme including extending the coverage to non SECC beneficiaries.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL
Donald Trump announces ‘historic’ peace deal between Israel, UAE
- US President Donald Trump announced Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to a “full normalization” of relations, including re—establishing diplomatic ties.
- This historic diplomatic breakthrough will advance peace in the Middle East region and is a testament to bold diplomacy and vision of the three leaders and the courage of the United Arab Emirates and Israel to chart a new path that will unlock the great potential of the region,” stated a joint statement by the United States, the UAE and Israel released by the White House.
- The leaders referred in the statement are President Trump, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed.
- “This is a truly historic moment,,” Trump stated in Oval office. “Not since the Jordan-Israel peace treaty was signed more than than 25 years ago that so much progress has been made towards peace in the Middle East”.
- The UAE and Israel will sign an agreement at the White House some time in the future, and will follow that up with other agreements over the next few weeks setting up embassies reciprocally and on investments, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, healthcare and culture.
- As a result of the the joint statement stated Israel will “suspend declaring sovereignty over areas outlined” in the President’s Vision for Peace unveiled earlier and focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world.
- As the US president stated, the joint statement the three countries are “confident that additional diplomatic breakthroughs with other nations are possible, and will work together to achieve this goal.”
About UAE:
- Capital: Abu Dhabi
- Currency: United Arab Emirates dirham
- President: Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
About Israel
- Prime minister: Benjamin Netanyahu
- Capital: Jerusalem
- Currency: Israeli Shekel
